Capacitors are used in a wide variety of semiconductor circuits. Because capacitors are of special importance in dynamic random access memory (DRAM) circuits, the invention will therefore be discussed in connection with DRAM circuits. However, the invention has broader applicability to any other memory circuits in which capacitors are used.
DRAM memory circuits are manufactured by replicating millions of identical circuit elements, known as DRAM cells, on a single semiconductor wafer. Each DRAM cell is an addressable location that can store one bit (binary digit) of data. In its most common form, a DRAM cell consists of two circuit components: a field effect transistor (FET) and a capacitor.
FIG. 1 illustrates a portion of a DRAM memory circuit containing two neighboring DRAM cells 10. For each cell, the capacitor 14 has two connections, located on opposite sides of the capacitor 14. The first connection is to a reference voltage, which is typically one half of the internal operating voltage (the voltage corresponding to a logical "1" signal) of the circuit. The second connection is to the drain of the FET 12. The gate of the FET 12 is connected to the word line 18, and the source of the FET is connected to the bit line 16. This connection enables the word line 18 to control access to the capacitor 14 by allowing or preventing a signal (a logic "0" or a logic "1") on the bit line 16 to be written to or read from the capacitor 14.
The manufacturing of a DRAM cell includes the fabrication of a transistor, a capacitor, and three contacts: one each to the bit line, the word line, and the reference voltage. DRAM manufacturing is a highly competitive business. There is continuous pressure to decrease the size of individual cells and to increase memory cell density to allow more memory to be squeezed onto a single memory chip.
Because the capacitor in a memory cell usually occupies a large portion of the cell area, many efforts at achieving higher cell packing density focus on reducing the semiconductor area occupied by the capacitor. Maintaining or increasing capacitance of a capacitor as its relative area is decreased is necessary not only to maintain charge at the refresh rates used, but also to facilitate information detection and decrease soft errors resulting from alpha particles.
In order to minimize the area occupied by a capacitor and maximize capacitance, various storage cell designs have been developed, including planar capacitors, stacked capacitor (STC) cells, and trench capacitors. Planar capacitors are located next to the transistor, stacked capacitors are stacked or placed over the access transistor, and trench capacitors are formed in the wafer substrate beneath the transistor. Most large capacity DRAMs use stacked capacitors because of their greater capacitance, reliability, and ease of formation.
One widely used type of stacked capacitor is known as a container capacitor. Known container capacitors are in the shape of an upstanding tube having an oval or cylindrical shape when viewed from the top down. The wall of the tube consists of two plates of conductive material such as doped polycrystalline silicon (referred to herein as polysilicon) separated by a dielectric. The bottom end of the tube is closed. The outer wall is in contact with either the drain of the access transistor or a plug which itself is in contact with the drain. The other end of the tube is open (the tube is filled with an insulative material later in the fabrication process). The sidewall and closed end of the tube form a container, hence the name "container capacitor."
In addition, methods of forming a rough surface on the storage electrode of a capacitor have been developed to increase the capacitance by increasing the surface area of the storage electrode. One of the most successful techniques for creating a rough surface is the formation of hemispherical-grain (HSG) polysilicon nodules on the surface of the storage electrode.
As memory cell density continues to increase, efficient use of space becomes ever more important. Therefore, what is needed is a capacitor that maximizes surface area without increasing the proportion of cell area occupied by the capacitor relative to the other cell components.